If you can't compete, litigate. This train of thought has been quite prevalent among major technology companies as of late, most notably by Apple and Microsoft, who both cannot compete with Android on merit, so they have to resort to patent lawsuits and FUD. Both Asustek and Acer have revealed that Microsoft plans to impose royalty fees upon the two Taiwanese hardware makers to prevent them from shipping Android and/or Chrome OS devices.

I'm sure there's some kind of law against this kind of thing. Right? Isn't the free market supposed to be about competition and innovation? You know, prices drop and uncompetitive products gets obsoleted, all for the better for the consumer.
With this kind of shit we might as well live in the former soviet union or north korea. Heck, not much difference if the jackboot heel belong to the government or some corporation.

I think the confusion centers around the term "free market". To many, that means everyone being able to compete equally based on the merits of their products. However, currently, it means the government closes their eyes and lets the big players do whatever they can to corner the market, including abusing the broken patent system.

No there is not. In fact, patent law is on the side of Microsoft here.

With this kind of shit we might as well live in the former soviet union or north korea. Heck, not much difference if the jackboot heel belong to the government or some corporation.

Actually, in the 'former soviet union', china, and many other less then democratic places patent and copyright laws are either lax or not enforced or both. It's really in the countries that are the bastion of democracy where this stuff happens.